Life as an international teacher has its ups and downs. Unlike working in the UK, you often find that your friends are your colleagues and at times it can feel as though you are living inside a bubble. Friendships are forged quickly as people share their new experiences and your colleagues become your friends, your exercise pals, drinking buddies and often closest confidantes. It all goes swimmingly well, then around the third month, if you’re not careful, then cabin fever sets in. This is why it is really important to seek friends outside of the workplace. In Colombia, this was a bit of a struggle due to the language barrier and a lack of other ex-pats. Sure, there were people who I met who were kind and patient enough to listen to my crap Spanish for half an hour, but I must have made pretty exhausting company with all my mistakes and misunderstandings!
Kampala, however, is a little different. For an African city, there are literally thousands of foreigners staying here for different reasons. It’s pretty easy to spot who is who too! Anyone who walks around Garden City shopping mall in hiking boots and trousers with too many pockets is here on a visit for safari. Then there are the young gap year volunteers, who can be heard bartering with locals in order to save a ha’penny from a hundred yards away. There are probably thousands of young, well-educated folk working here for various NGO organisations, teachers and medical staff working in both private and public schools and hospitals for an average two or three year stint (this would be my category!), living on a moderate wage. If you walk into the Irish pub, you will find a huge crowd of South Africans watching the rugby or just enjoying a pint or eight, who are working for big multinationals like the phone companies and so on. Then there are the old timers – the families who have stayed here for generations and feel completely at home, be it in Kampala or out in the country.
Many people are only staying for a month or two and it soon becomes clear that people want to know which sort of person you are. A first meeting with a foreigner in Kampala will usually establish what line of work you are in and, the key question, how long are you staying! The long-timers see my time here as a fleeting visit and it would be very easy for me to think the same of the folk staying here for 6 months or so. Many a conversation has ended, and many a friendship has not had the chance to get off the ground in this city, just because of how long you are staying. I get it – it takes much precious time and effort to make new friends, and it’s sad to see them go.
This year though, I have started to break out of the bubble a little. Monday is the hash day which provides me with a good run and a chance to meet new people and catch up with old friends. On a Wednesday I go to yoga and have made a few friends there too. Many of us are trying our hardest to branch out, which then means that we get to meet friends of friends. I know that this does not sound very remarkable to anyone living in their home country, but believe me when I say that this is progress! This weekend I went to Jinja with a couple of friends to farewell one of these newer friends. It’s sad to see people go, but making the effort most definitely helps keep you sane here!
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